A number of containers have been developed to separately store two substances and allow the two substances to be mixed together prior to being dispensed. One technique for mixing the substances is shown, for instance, in U.S. Pat. No. 7,137,531 to Arghyris et al. This patent discloses a system having two sealed flexible bags containing two kinds of fluids and a pump for mixing the fluids. The pump dispenses the fluids separately or mixed. Among other things, these containers, however, are not suitable for mixing and dispensing substances of a large volume such as 200 liters.
In addition, alcohol have been used in clean room environments for many years to decontaminate various devices, instruments, gloves, incoming components, critical product contact surfaces, critical non-product contact surfaces, and surfaces that are used inside the clean room. Alcohol (which is not naturally sterile) was being sterilized by the end user on-site in volumes that were limited due to the flammable nature of the alcohol. This required that the alcohol be sterile filtered in a Class 100 environment (clean room or clean hood) into a pre-sterilized container, which is generally known as “aseptic” processing, and stored in clean and sterile environments. The end user would formulate the alcohol to the desired levels, filter-sterilize it in the area into pre-sterilized containers, and draw it off on an as-needed basis. In addition, the sterilized alcohol could become contaminated after use, so that clean rooms generally were not able to keep a supply of sterilized alcohol for long periods of time. The sterilization of alcohol was a time-consuming process that detracted from the other work being performed in the clean room.
Chemical compositions such as phenols, cleaners, quaternary ammoniums, hydrogen peroxide, bleach, peracetic acid and hydrogen peroxide have also been used in clean room environments. Typically, concentrates of these chemical components are mixed with water on-site and on-demand to provide diluted disinfectants. However, this manual mixing process is labor intensive and cumbersome.